Category Archives: Pie

I’ve been so busy eating and cooking and eating and eating…..I haven’t been writing about it. Much of my cooking has been taking what was left and making into something new, something fresh, something different…..

Like leftover shrimp from Christmas Day….

There was some of THIS left….stay late at the party, score the leftovers!

As much as I love just picking and dunking shrimp to cocktail sauce…..and then thinking

“Is it TRUE that shrimp cocktail came about because of Prohibition?”

Or was that FRUIT cocktail????

I wanted a hot meal, but since the shrimp was already cooked, it just needed to be a re-heat element.

.

Eat Feed Autumn Winter – Anne Bramley

Anne Bramley also does the podcast EATFEED – I’m interviewed in the PIE episode.

But I had pulled this book off the shelf, and sure as shooting – shrimp!

Citrus in Season

Chapter 18

Chili Lime Shrimp with Rice

Coconut Black Beans

pp. 148-151.

Since this was a light supper, I made a few revisions:

Chili Lime Rice with Shrimp (and coconut)

I made some rice, adding the zest of the lime and some hot pepper. When the rice was done I added the naked shrimp, chopped, and bit of coconut and served it in a rice bowl with a squeeze of the the now naked lime – note to self – next time squeeze citrus first and then zest.

These are the rice bowls currently for sale at Williams-Sonoma. I bought a set of 12 for less , much less then a set of four now goers for, back in the olden days of the Carter Administration. I still have two. Nine moves and three decades.

Anne also quotes Harry Nilsson… you know

which make me think of

The Shrimp Girl is a painting by the English artist William Hogarth. It was painted around 1740–45, and is held by the National Gallery, London.

Whatever else they’ve been called, they’re all still cranberries. In 1672 John Josslyn suggests:

“Some make Tarts with them as with Goose Berries.”

Gooseberries

Red Gooseberries

Cranberry Tart – Precedence and Persistence

“Tartes of Gooseberries.

Lay your gooseberries in your crust, and put to them cinnamon and ginger,

sugar and a few small raisins put among them and cover them with a

cover.”

– A Booke of Cookery with the Serving of the Table; A.W.; 1591;

page 28

Berries, cinnamon, ginger, sugar and small raisins between pastry. Bake is implied. Easy.

And somewhat familiar…..

CRANBERRY – RAISIN PIE

3 C raw cranberries

1 C raisins

1 ¼ C sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

¼ tsp salt

¾ C water

1 ½ tsp vanilla*

Pastry for a 2 crust 9 inch

Put the cranberries and raisins through food grinder.Place in saucepan and add all ingredients except vanilla.Cook over low heat until thick, and cranberries are cooked. Add vanilla and place in pie shell. Bake until crust is done. Dots of butter and nutmeats may be added on

– Florence H. Angley. A Book of Favorite Recipes. complied by the Ladies Solidarity of St. Joseph the Worker Church Hanson, Mass..1968. p. 52.

Pastry Station

The beginning and the end of pie…the crust, the dough, the very pie-ness of pie. Contrary to all sorts of nonsense, pie dough is easy. Easy as Pie.

Three ingredients – flour, fat, liquid. Infinite variations.Change the flour, change the liquid, change the fat…The basic of basic: a 3:2:1: ration of flour:butter :water. In Ratio (Michael Ruhlman ) precise by weight measurements; or in more eyeballing, not quite so scientific throw together school (mine) : 2 1/2 cups flour, 2 sticks butter, 1/4-1/2 cups water. You might also want a teaspoon of salt (not quite so necessary if you’re using salted butter) and perhaps a spoonful of sugar, but if you don’t know if you need sugar, DON’T PANIC, don’t fret – leave it out and after you eat this pie, know more, know better for the next pie.

Add the butter to the flour, rubbing it in, letting some of the pieces remain the size of pease.Sprinkle the 1/4 water on top, stir it together until it comes together in a ball. Add a little more water if it’s still too crumbly. Don’t over-mix – you don’t want to wake up and excite the gluten. When it holds together, divide in half and make into 2 disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1/2 an hour, or even a full day. This waiting time lets the water molecules mix with the flour molecule and all be evenly hydrated. These 2 disks are enough for a top and bottom crust.

This is the outer gold of the pie.

Apple Station

5-10 apples, depending on their size, how high a pie you want to make and how patient you are with peeling and coring and slicing.If you don’t like slices,you can chop the apples….but in the end you want them to fit on a fork with some crust and then fit into your mouth. Or roses….you can make roses from apples instead of slices or chunks….

Any apple can make an apple pie – what are you looking for in a pie? Old Farmer’s Almanac has an Apple GuideApple Guide if you don’t want to trust your own taste.You can also mix apples…really, it’s your pie.You can mix otehr fruit in, too, but then it isn’t an apple pie, it’s and apple and____pie. Apple make good company. Cranberries. Squash slices. Pears. Onions (caramelize them first). Sweet Potatoes. Regular Potatoes. Bacon. Cheddar Cheese. Etc.

Spice Station

Sugar and spice and everything nice…

Sugar – white or brown? A little to enhance the other flavors or is it a flavor in an of itself? Maple sugar? Maple syrup will make it drippy….

Cinnamon – a little or a lot? Ginger? Nutmeg? Let your nose lead you…

Lemon juice is often added to keep the slices from browning – News alert : Cooking the apple is ALSO going to brown them, so add the sugar, add the spice and add the lemon juice if you like the taste.Or add a little of another juice. Apple juice/cider is good. Lemon juice is very 20th century flavor in apple pie; a spoonful of lemon liquor would work, too. Grated orange peel is another option. Caraway, dill seed or fennel seed add nice flavor. A spoonful of rosewater or orange flower water. Cinnamon and rum…lead with your nose!

Paolo Antonio Barbieri. The Spice Shop – 1637

Rolling Station

Now the component pieces start to come together as a whole. Before you gather together the pie pan, the rolling pin, the dough and the filling, there’s another decision – Is this pie to be bakes now, or is it to be assembled and frozen to be baked later? If you want to bake the pie now – turn on the oven to 425°F. If later – get rolling!

Sprinkle a little flour on a clean flat surface. Unwrap one disk of dough. With a rolling pin

One kind of rolling pin

roll one disk into a circle about 2 inches wider around then your pie pan. There are lots of rolling out videos and magazine hints. In the last few months both Christopher Kimball in his new magazine Milk Street has a new no-shrink dough

and – just about everyone else has a pie rolling video out. Apple Pie alone could entertain you on the internet for weeks on end…..

Roll out one disk, put it on the pie plate.

Roll out the other disk.

Put the Apple in the bottom crust. Dot with butter. Maybe sprinkle with sugar.

Put the top crust on.

Almost pie.

The other kind of rolling pin

Crimping Station

In pie, crimping is good. It holds everything together.It can be pretty, too. Remember that that oven is heating up, and the longer the filling sits in unbaked crust, the soggier your bottom will be. And a little venting in the top. Even a pie has to let off some steam.

Baking Station

Now is the time to pass this pan, with apples and butter and flour through heat, where it will be transformed. It’s not really pie until it comes out of the hot oven.

Start at 425°. After 10 or 15 minutes take a peak – is it browning up? Is it smelling good. A good pie crust is golden brown, not pasty palely white. Let it cook! Turn it down to 375° when you see color on the pastry, and let it continue baking until juices are bubbling.Let the fruit cook, too. 30-45 minutes – don’t rush it.

Cooling Station

If you REALLY want to eat pie hot – even though pie is not at all it’s best then – use spoons and dish it up like like a baked pudding. Forget all pretense of slices.

As it cools, contemplate – whipped cream, ice cream, cheddar cheese?

Henry Ward Beecher on Apple Pie

[B]lessed be the unknown person who invented the apple-pie! Did I know where the grave of that person was, methinks I would make a devout pilgrimage thither, and rear a monument over it that should mark the spot to the latest generations. Of all pies, of every name, the apple-pie is easily the first and chief.

Apple-Pie should be eaten while it is yet florescent, white or creamy yellow, with the merest drip of candied juice along the edges (as if the flavor were so good to itself that its own lips watered!), of a mild and modest warmth; the sugar suggesting jelly, yet not jellied; the morsels of apple neither dissolved, nor yet in original substance, but hanging, as it were, in a trance between the spirit and the flesh of applehood.

Not that apple is no longer apple! It, too, is transformed; and the final pie, though born of apple, sugar, butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon, is unlike none of these, but the ideal of them all, refined, purified, and by fire fixed in blissful perfection.

Community Servings prepares and delivers delicious, medically-tailored meals to 1,600 homebound individuals and families in 20 Massachusetts communities each year. For $30, the cost of a pie, we are able to feed a client for a week. As you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, please remember that a sick neighbor is also eating today, thanks to you!

Click the link and buy a pie! Pie in the Sky is part of Community Servings.

are planning the next Pie-Making Marathon for November 17, 2016. This will be the third year community joins together to make pies for the Food Pantry to give away for Thanksgiving.If your in the the Greater Kingston (MA) area on the 17th, come and join the fun.

Like this:

The Pies!

The Pies!

A note on the judges – there was me, from Plimoth Plantation

There was Doris Cooper of Clarkson Potter Publishing

and the third judge was Darra Goldstein of Williams College and Cured magazine

I’m pretty much listing the pies as I found them on the tables…..This is all from my (incomplete) and rather hastily scribbled notes and there are a few smears…..pie judging is not for the dainty or the fainthearted.

I also didn’t write down who made what pie, which I didn’t know until the prizes were being given out. Several people made more then one pie.

There were several not quite pies….

Cherry Claflouti – a batter, not a crust. This is not the actual entry, which was more attractive …

Medieval Brie Tart – Yes – Medieval Brie , although the recipe was old, the ingredients were fresh. From To the King’s Taste by Lorna Sass.More on this in a later post

Apple Tart – this was a French Apple tart – rectangular and lovely. Crisp golden pastry…

Corn and Zucchini quiche – This had an incredible Autumnal Yankee taste – first impression. I know, zukes and Yankees….but that is what my mouth told me. And now for the Pie Pies:

Maple Walnut Pie – New England’s answer to Pecan Pie…..

Smith Family Chocolate Pie – this was a cream pie with chocolate added. When I first looked at it, I almost thought it was pate – but the smell was wrong, and the label …. a good name makes ALL the difference sometimes!

Chocolate Meringue Nut Surprise – two chocolate pies! – This had a lovely meringue and a chocolate custard base, as well as nuts. It wasn’t until the third taste that I found the surprise – BLUEBERRIES -Surprise! – little tiny wild blueberries between the chocolate and the meringue. This is why you need THREE bites.

Apple Butternut – sliced apples and diced butternut squash . Very traditional. For a long time apple and squash/pumpkin were sliced up together in pies.I’ll probably do another post on the apple/pumpkin connection, too.

Apple Bread Pie – had quite a bit going for it- but a better name might be ‘Ginger Apple Bread Pie’ This was an apple pie with gingerbread spicing….but I was looking for the bready filling…

Mardi Smith took these pictures and shared them on Facebook Grandmother’s Old Fashioned Two Crust Lemon pie – great crust and great lemon filling.

Grandmother’s Old Fashioned Two Crust Lemon pie – great crust and great lemon filling.

Shakers did 2 crust lemon pies….this is not the entry pie. Next contest – take a camera!

Country Rumpkin – Here are my bite reactions:

This would be a great cocktail!

Why ISN”T this a cocktail – a rum and pumpkin cocktail?

This is one great Pumpkin Pie – and I swear it wasn’t the rum talking. I may put rum into all my pumpkin pie from here on out.Alice Parker thought with the rain there might not be enough pies, so she baked one, and dressed like a gentleman – Alfred Parker – to abide by the rules. And she played the piano.

Ginger Apple Moose Pie – The moose, to our great relief , was not the meat within, but the antler shapes cut out on top.

Will holding his prize winning pie – golden, gorgeous, every element was above.

Like this:

I try to be open minded in my real life, not judgmental – but when it comes to Pie….well, this is not my first pie judging. And there is a difference between the good, the very good and the sublime. I have yet to have bad homemade pie (commercial pie is a whole ‘nother world), but I am willing to keep tasting to risk it!

Pies have 2 parts – crust and filling. They are evaluated separately and then together.

There were 2 criteria – appearance and taste. I would add name as a criteria….because what you call it raises expectations, but can also be clarifying. And it has to deliver. Promise and delivery – that’s the name of the pie game.

Appearance:

Appearances Count!

Crust:

Pastry Soapbox time: Pie dough, pie crust – whatever you call it, it should be golden, and browned and beautiful- not pale or wan. It needs to contribute to the whole – otherwise, put the filling in a greased casserole dish and call the whole thing pudding!

To quote Martha Stewart Living magazine Nov 2016 p. 142

“With pies, color equals flavor: We can spot a pale, underbaked one a mile away! Look for deep golden-brown top and bottom crusts, and major bubbling action in the center.” *

*Fruit pie have the bubbling center action – other sorts of pie, not so much or not at all!

Without proper browning, the flour is pasty and the fat component is just greasy. Many pie recipes are far too timid in the baking – start with a hot oven – you can turn it down in 10 or 15 minutes – and really build some color and depth of flavor.

Pale crust says ‘Not sublime’ And now back to judging criteria….

Slice – It doesn’t have to hold be perfect, but it has to hold promise. If it has a sloppy or runny filling, use a spoon to serve so we know that you know what’s going on. Spoons are more traditional!

1642 – Willem Claeszoon Heda

Taste:

Scent is part of the first taste – what does it promise?

A quick note about names….what you call it sets an expectation, too. And it should deliver. There was a chocolate cream pie that looked rather more like pate …a name label made a HUGE difference on my expectation!

Three tastes are necessary for judgment – the first impression; the second after your mouth knows what’s coming, the middle notes; the third for a lasting impression, the one you take away. Mouth feel, spicing, balance, texture, funny bits…all things to look for in taste.

First impressions are sometimes a surprise. That’s why you need a second taste (and maybe a bottle of water) to get a real grasp of what’s going on.

Memory – 5 minutes later….which are the pies you want to go back to? Was the flavor hit fleeting or lasting?

Because I was late to the Pie Contest in Hawley, the other judges had already begun. They had moved the tarts, quiche and clafuti into a separate category, so that we were judging pies against pies.

FYI – Every pie had a prize. Because I know how Tinky plans these things, I was pretty sure that there were as many prizes as pies. No one went home empty handed (even the judges got booty bags).

PIE Contest judging day!!!!!

So much talent

Such mighty fine pies

Pie Parade – I’m bringing up the rear with Alice Parker’s pie, since she – as Alfred Parker, is playing the piano and didn’t have a hand free. Tinky is in the hat, singing like a bird.

Like any good pie, this story has more than one slice…..

Our car had a roof, so we were dry in the rain. And we had fall foliage. And no Brad Pitt.But we were driving towards PIE!

Slice one – This year I did not go alone. Baker Tani wanted to go to taste pies, too. So early in the morning we left, driving out from coastal Plymouth to the Hills of Hawley. Three hours and Fall Foliage and maybe we got a little lost up the mountain later, we get there.There was also rain and Honey Dew coffee and Doughnuts and the Mohawk Trail and Thelma and Louise-ishness. At least the part about 2 women on a road trip. Neither of us could remember much about the movie, just the image of two women in a car, one with a scarf. And Brad Pitt.We remembered Brad Pitt.

Slice 2 – The judging of pies

Slice 3 – Ham and Bean Community lunch

Slice 4 – The entertainment after lunch and before the winners were announced. This including the singing of the town song…..

Not dated, not accredited, just a print out. I have no memory of ever making it….it sounds great, though – Pineapple and orange pound-cake with a cream cheese honey icing….is HOPEHoney-Orange-Pineapple …???Eggs????

Google and discover.

Monday, really Big Fourth Celebrations here in America’s Hometown (that would be Plymouth, not to be confused with all those other America’s Hometowns). Parade with lots of fire trucks and police trucks, all with sirens blaring. Politicians smiling big, waving like the Queen of England, shaking hands; floats with people tossing candies into the crowd. Youth sports teams and other groups of young people, waving their trophies high. Bands, oh those bands. Marching bands, jazz bands, and even rock bands on floats…..and a group from the Priscilla Beach Theatre did a number from A Chorus Line in front of the Grandstand.

ONE

(Singular Sensation)

Kay and Bunk were there on their red, white and blue bicycles…this image is from another year…..there’s photo another of Bunk at July 4th – Plymouth MA

Cheering, waving.

Dragonflies like crazy all morning. HUGE dragonflies.

The woman seated near me up on Cole’s Hill passed her sunscreen over to me as the morning wore one, Hawaiian Tropics coco-nutty SPF 50 or 70 or 85 – something uber screening for pale Irish skin.

…..Hawaiian Tropic, an old summer friend, shared by a new friend by location

Milling with the post parade crowd, old friends to catch up with.

Time to head home, buy some OFF and take a little nap to go back for the Phil concert.

Sprayed the OFF on, milled about, kept seeing people I knew, but not able to get up to them before they were lost in the crowd. And it was a crowd. Finally picked a spot where I could see the firework barges in the harbor that didn’t have trees crowding the view overhead AND see the bandstand.

A Bus comes down the blocked off street – the Philharmonic arriving!

They played all the usual suspects, as well as a Star Trek tribute (50 years since the show first aired) and a tribute to the King – Elvis Presley.

Last number – The 1812 Overture, of course.

And then the fireworks begin.

OOOOOWWW!

AAAAAAHHH!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

And then – and then a really big display, mostly low down, close to the water.

And I thought to myself,” It almost looks as if the barge is on fire.”

Denise Maccaferri Photography

Then nothing.

People around me started saying it was a pretty short show this year and were getting up to leave.

I had to get up so I wouldn’t get trampled by the people climbing up the hill to get to their cars.

Almost every announcement about the fireworks during the day included remarks about how expensive they were, it wasn’t too late to donate…..so a short show WAS a possibility.

I only live a couple of blocks from the waterfront, so I was home lickety-split.

An hour or so late, I found it there really was a fire on the barge.

And thus begins a week of promise that just kept going downhill……

As if Orlando weren’t bad enough, St. Paul, Baton Rouge and then Dallas….too much red blood on too many American streets….

Early this morning a little bird held on the the edge of my window screen,

EAT IT

All the time. Persistent cravings can lead to less then great food choices…..

So, when I grabbed a coffee at a certain Golden Arches while at the bus station….and they offered

APPLE PIES

2 for DOLLAR

AND they smelled sooooooo cinnamonly good….

ever so very sugar and spice and everything nice applely good

I knew to resist.

And I did.

Mom didn’t have time today so WE MADE YOU THIS BAKED APPLE PIE . Thanks, but no thanks, Micky D

But then there’s the trip homeward bound. I’m tired. My guard might have been a little bit down. I was hungry and home is still a while away. Pure curiosity compelled me to try the Grilled Chicken Sandwich on Artisan Roll

It wasn’t bad. I’m still not sure what made the roll artisan. I believe artisan has officially jumped the shark in the food descriptor world, though, if it’s on a McDonald’s menu.

And Egad that pie smelled good…..and for a dollar, one little, measly dollar that I had in my hand because the coffee was also only one little dollar….and it

STILL

smelled ever so very sugar and spice and everything nice applely good

So when the kid at the counter asks, “Apple PIE??????”

My head nodded in agreement, somewhat independently of my brain and better judgement. He rang up the order….the chicken sandwich had one bag and the apple pies (I would of had to had been more verbal to get only one.) had their own. Oh, that smell!

The chicken was good, the fries a disappointment – maybe it was BK that had the good fries? but no matter. I had a Little Apple Pie to go with the coffee.

applepieapplepieapplepieapplepieapplepie happy apple pie song in my head

Apple Pie and Coffee. What could be better?

Just around the corner,there’s a rainbow in the sky,So let’s have another cup of coffee,and let’s have another piece of pie.

Apple pie and coffee. Yes.

The coffee was good, maybe a little better then good. Not great, but really good.

And the pie.

The pie.

How could something that smelled THAT good, have so little taste whatsoever??????

I could feel it in my mouth, but there was no taste there. No too sweet, no too greasy, no tart or bad. Just no. Nothing.

If I hadn’t been able to SMELL it, I wouldn’t have known it was there at all.

How can something be all scent and no flavor and still be sold as a food item?

I was not at all tempted to eat pie #2……Maybe it was something in the artisan roll or the chicken or…..

But the bag it came in smelled so wonderful., like I always want those little car air fresheners to smell and they never, not even quite, do.

I carried the pie home, mostly because it smelled so pie.

I wanted to save the bag it came in. As it cooled, it smelled less

sugar and spice and everything nice applely good

Hmmm – heat activated scent. Just like my antiperspirant…….

The next day, when I made my Bengal Spice tea and the scent reminded me of apple pie, and I remember the apple pie in the bag. Why not give it another go? Maybe French Fries negate Apple Pies….a stretch, I admit, but still a possiblity.

I put the apple pie in the microwave to heat for half a minute.

My kitchen was suddenly a Great Bakery, where everything

smelled sooooooo cinnamonly good….

ever so very sugar and spice and everything nice applely good

Magic.

And the taste?

Still elusive. Non-existent. Not there. Nada.

I drank the tea as the so-called pie cooled, and for the next little while lived in the fantasy of having baked a pie because that’s how my kitchen smelled while I transcribed apple pie recipes and poems.